Forever And A Day

Joshua 1:6-9

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left,  that you may be successful wherever you go. 


⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 


⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Day 8: Farewell Amy, Hostel Happenings & Team Dinner

Let's see if I can keep this relatively short because I am exhausted and my eyes are blood shot red.

Amy left this morning :( It's so weird to think that her leaving was only this morning. She came and left so quickly. The bed beside me is empty. COME BACK AMY! There were some people on strike today and tomorrow because they're upset with the government so this caused some streets to be blocked when they were trying to get Amy to the airport soooo what should have been a 25-30 min trip there took them over an hour. But, she made it home safe!

This afternoon Anna, Brooke and I went to a hostel right down the street because there was a missions team from Sacramento, California that wanted to know more about Trafficking/Prostitution in the San Jose area and about LightForce. This hostel was really nice. Like... I've never been to a hostel but even Anna and Brooke were commenting on how nice it was. I also met Geova. Oh good gosh I hope I didn't spell that wrong. She spelled it for me earlier today. She was super sweet. She was helping the team as a translator but was also friends with Anna and Laura and worked with Karlie & Megan with Love & Scissors and translating for them. Anna spoke for an audience of about 30 girls. Brooke and I tagged along. Brooke was there to answer some questions and I... of course... had my camera on me. You know no matter how many times I hear Anna's story about how LightForce came to be and her first experiences in Nicaragua and living in San Jose alone for a period of time... I haven't got tired of hearing her inspirational story. I also got to observe some of the girls around me and their receiving end of the stories and information. The whole team prayed for Anna and for LightForce as we wrapped up our time there.

Brooke, Megan and I made our way to Walmart later in the afternoon to grab food for Team Dinner. We made Calzones! We had a great dinner along with our Landlord Patricia. She is a super sweet, jesus loving, woman. She ended up asking me about music and for some "indie christian" music that she could suggest to her son... i think it was her son. That was pretty cool.

It was a little chilly today, realllly windy, and rainy so after dinner we had some team time along with chocolate chip cookies and mint hot chocolate. I love that it is their winter here. Mmm.


So now it's off to bed for me. Goodnight all!

If I could ask for prayers over our home here and our team as we go out to the streets tomorrow that would be totes da bestest!

Duces.

Day 7: Capture, Render, Edit & Casa Agape

This morning the girls went to a spanish service at the church in Coronado. I stayed back at home to help Anna with a media related project. We recorded an update for her home church in Kentucky and for most of the day I have been importing, syncing, rendering and editing. I'm actually kinda excited about it. So excited and into it that I forgot to eat lunch. Whoops. So I ate around 4pm.

The girls returned from Coronado and we began to set up for Casa Agape Service... mopping, moving furniture, preparing coffee and coming up with ways to entertain the children who came. Casa Agape holds a service on sunday nights where friends from the streets and their families will come. There are also children who have come that have been trafficked and or sexually abused. It was such a blessing to get to love on those little boys and girls. Amy did some killer face painting and they were highly entertained by the yellow balloons we blew up... especially when it came to popping the balloons.

I got to sit in on a little bit of the service as a man gave his testimony entirely in spanish. (Sidenote: A little girl named Alyssa just came and sat in my lap. My heart melted.) Being in the speaking minority really provides me with the opportunity to hear and see and feel people's hearts without the words. It was the connecting of the holy spirit. Honestly it's really hard to describe... but there were points when something he said, although I didn't understand it with my ears... my heart understood and my spirit agreed. Wow. Yeah. I haven't thought any of this through until now. As I'm writing this I am processing this for the first time. I'm a little blown away. I think I just learned something. Sorry folks. Wow. Kay. This is awesome. A shout out to my BFF Mir Mir "Isn't God Awesome!" hahaha

During the week one of the guys from the streets had a birthday so Laura made chocolate cake for him.

The night felt a little crazy with everything going on at once and with sooooo many people all in one place but it was fun. After the night was through we cleaned up and then our team spent time upstairs in our apartment debriefing, fellowshipping and worshiping.

It's been a long day and tomorrow will most likely be the same :) I can't believe it has already been a week since I got here. Amy leaves tomorrow afternoon :( Then it will be the three of us girls till I leave next sunday. I'm not gonna think about that. I'm here and in the now and it has been such a wonderful thing.

Day 4, 5 & 6: Goodbye Paul, Hermosa & I fell in love with a little boy named Andres

So I guess I have missed a couple days... it's been a pretty busy couple of days. I'm going to try and keep my summaries to only a couple paragraphs each.

Day 4: Goodbye Paul (Thursday)

Thursday was a pretty interesting day for us interns. The morning was spent with a deadline in mind. Laura came to us the night before with a project that needed to be completed by 2pm our time and 4pm Sarah's time. So around 10:30am we started on a project that took us all the way till 2pm. I had the longer end of the deal because I took what we had, put it together electronically and then e-mailed it to Laura. After staring at my computer screen and several hours of formatting my brain was a little fried. I was excited for the challenge and felt really great with what we finished. :)

Oh... and our friend Henry came to visit the girls while I finished final touches on our project. They made lunch, cookies, danced and learned to dance.

That afternoon we walked down to the market to get Costa Rican coffee. Paul left us on friday so it was his last chance to get some goodies before leaving. We also ate some CR (Costa Rican... I'm going to use this for short) Churros. Nothing like the US churros we know from places like Disney World or 6 Flags Over Texas. They were pretty good but super sugary. On our way back home we came across a painter that Laura knew who's name was Jose´. He was a super sweet little Tico man who painted on sections of fabric. I hope he is down there the next time we make our way there because I want to buy one from him. 

Later that evening we went out to eat with Paul since it was his last evening with us. Kate, Laura's cousin also joined us she's pretty awesome. Dinner was nice and gave us some quality time with good eats. 

Day 5: Hermosa - Jaco (Friday)

Friday we went to the beach in Jaco. As you will see in my last post we went to a black sand beach. It was cleaner than the beaches in St. Augustine or Virginia Beach that's for sure. Yet, the people here consider it to be a dirty beach. When you are a gringa the black sand is pretty outstanding and gets alllllllllll over the place. 

We took a two hour bus ride there and a two hour bus ride home. Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we got home. 

Day 6: I fell in love with a little boy named Andres

This morning we got up early to make our way to a kids soccer outreach ministry. This is the first saturday that we are helping with this ministry. We will continue to work with this outreach every saturday morning. All the girls dressed to kick the ball around but little did we know what we were actually getting into. Kicking the ball around was only practice. Anna and I watched the bags as the other girls ran drills and conditioned with the kids. It was a hoot to watch from the sides. I got plenty of footage... don't you worry! It's all documented... from pushups to high knees to racing across the court. I say court only because we weren't on an actual field... we were using the basketball court. 

So it started to rain. It rained a little... then it rained a lot. Who decided to embrace her outdoors side today without a rain coat? That's Me! So I got soaked and it was a little chilly. 

There was a little boy who was probably around 8 or 9 who's name is Andres. He was the smallest of all the other kids but boy could he dribble a soccer ball! I think he was trying to show off a little for Anna and I. Anyway, I wanted to take Andres home with me. Seriously the cutest, driven, little tico boy! He didn't want anyone thinking he couldn't take them on, that's for sure! 

So this ministry outreach has been going for about two months now. It is held in one of the more underprivileged areas of San Jose. These kids don't have much. Their families don't have much. But to see them running and laughing and playing even through the pouring rain was beautiful. I wish I could have captured some of the latter moments of that morning but it was raining too hard. 

I got to have some good conversation with Anna as well as with Amy and Anna when watching the boys and girls play. I have been so touched by some of our random conversations here over the past 6 days. 

We jumped on a bus home exhausted and ready to get out of wet clothes. I showered and put on some comfy clothes that I wore for the rest of the day. We all kinda napped and then our friend Yamil made a visit. Yamil left for Jaco and we continued to rest. Amy and Brooke went to a surprise party for a Coronado friend's birthday. Anna, Laura, Megan and I stayed home, made dinner, and drank cocoa. Which brings me here. Writing. I'm pretty past exhausted and tomorrow is a big day. I will have to tell you about that later.

Buenas Noches.

Photo of the Day... Day 5

Tonight was pretty nice. Black Beach. 

Day # 3: Estudio de Biblia con Pati

Wednesday was pretty chillax since we had an eventful night the previous evening. We spent the morning and afternoon spending time in the word and spending time with each other. Megan made snickerdoodle cookies for the bible study we were attending that evening. Pati was teaching that night so she spent time preparing for the message she was going to deliver. We walked to the bus stop, took a 25 minute bus ride to Coronado and then walked another 15 minutes to a guy's house for bible study. We were only 15 minutes early which would have been perfect in the states... but Tico time... that's more like 30 minutes early. It's pretty tricky here with travel when you don't have your own car. You either leave and get there super early or risk arriving 30 minutes late. Better to be early I guess.

Everyone there greeted traditionally... which means a hug and a kiss on the cheek. I don't think I have been kissed on the cheek or given that many kisses in one night. Some of the Ticos weren't sure whether to greet Amy and I with a kiss on the cheek or not but we reassured them that it was fine.

We played an ice breaker game where we split into 4 teams. All I know is that I needed to jump up and down and repeat what everyone else in my group was saying. I really didn't understand anything until later Brooke explained that we were shouting about shoes... and what color they were... yep.

Pati taught a very engaging lesson. Everyone there seemed to be tuned in and a lot of response came back when Pati asked them to give their thoughts. I got some pictures of Pati preachin' up a storm and then took an awesome group photo. I didn't understand 98% of what Pati was saying but I was still engaged in her lesson and watching people respond. I also had to read a verse out of the bible in spanish... pretty sure my face turned red because I mispronounced a couple words and read so slow. I was afraid to say something wrong and it be something bad. jaja.

After the lesson we had a couple worship songs that we all sang with guitar accompaniment. I didn't know the first or last song but I did recognize "No Place I'd Rather Be." It was pretty neat to be singing in english when everyone else was singing in spanish.

I got to pray with a girl named Alison. She was so reserved and sweet. I used my phone to help me translate so that I could ask her how I could pray for her. She prayed in spanish for me and I prayed in english for her. Pretty awesome.

We took the bus home and basically I was so tired that I passed out in bed.

Something I was thinking about last night was how their high school bible study was the same as ours in the states. I could see almost a reflection of my home group days in last night. I don't know why I would have this subconscience thinking that it would be different but it was very much the same. The interactions were the same. It was pretty awesome.

Biblia De Estudio Con Pati

Brooke, Amy, Pati, Megan & Me

Day 2 & Night 3

Yesterday was orientation for Amy and I. Anna and Laura met with us and explained more about LightForce, trafficking, prostitution and answered any questions that we had. We then spent our time till the evening resting, reading, preparing and relaxing before heading out that evening with YWAM and two guys from the GAP Program. We had some fellowship, we worshiped and we prayed before loading into the van for outreach. Amy and I sat in the back of the van and observed most of the time. I watched Anna, Laura & Pati interact with people they knew and people they didn't know. I watched them smile and greet their friends. I got to see the smiles on the girls or guys faces when the van pulled up. I looked into the eyes of one woman in particular and all I could do was smile as my eyes began to tear up because I felt some of her hurt with her. I got to hear the stories of these women's and men's lives. There were things I couldn't wrap my mind around. Some of the confusion I would never be able to fully understand because God is the one who does. I heard of progress and heard of steps taken backward or in another direction. I had a message from one of my friends for one of the ladies that I delivered last night. As I watched her receive that message her eyes teared and she gave me a hug. I couldn't help but smile and laugh. She was so grateful that I had delivered that message and was glad to have met me as I was also glad to have met her.

I can definitely say that last night was exhausting even though I didn't get out of the van but once. Laura, Anna, and Pati do this every week. I am in awe of the strength they have been blessed with to carry through week by week and more so, day by day. I can definitely see where prayer, worship and fasting are essential. Without God, none of this would be possible.

Here's another picture for all of you out there reading this blog thing of mine.

Day 2 Photos

Sunset was the bomb 

Warm & Cool

Megan

Overlooking the City

Day 1 : Los aeropuertos, mercados, y el baile ...

Airports, Markets & Dancing

It's an interesting thing to wake up in a different place. I only woke up once in the middle of the first night because I heard the bathroom door being shut (which sticks) at 4am. I woke up feeling very well rested and not at all out of place. I don't know if culture shock is supposed to set in by now but... I don't feel like I have experienced it. Interestingly enough I don't feel out of place here. Perhaps that's just the peace of God and assurance that I am exactly where I need to be right now. 

This morning Pati and Paul made breakfast. Huevos y something with rice and beans... it was good :)

When I was finishing up eating our driver arrived to take us to the airport to pick up Amy. Tano... I think his name is. Megan, Brooke and I went to pick up Amy from her flight but didn't know what she looked like. We had signs and stood at both exits. Now I was one of those people with their signs and faces basically plastered against the large windows. jaja. Finally Brooke found Amy, a red headed...auburn? girl from Georgia. It was her first time out of the country as well as her first time flying alone.

We made our way back home, ate lunch and then made our way to the market. I bought 2 mangos and some awesome bananas for super cheap! Paul kindly carried my bananas since I already had several large mangos in my bag, plus my camera. I learned to always look down as you walk because the sidewalks are rugged. I also learned that any automobile always has the right of way. 

When in the market Megan bought pineapple from a tico who then kindly let "the americans" try his Rambrutan. If you don't know what that is heres a little look see:

This stuff is odd looking, but its really good. It's a fruit!

He also began to comment on how pretty we all were he then looked at me and said something that I didn't understand so I just smiled I figured he was just commenting on how pretty we all were. Later as we left Brooke told me that he was saying that we were all pretty but I was veyr special, especially beautiful. So I guess that's what he was saying when he put his fingers to his lips and kissed them and released them. jaja.

We also made a walmart run where I got my groceries for the next two weeks. Nothing too eventful there... just a lot of walking.

We made it home to meet with Laura, Anna, and Pati for dinner. Pati made honduran food for me :) While making dinner Pati turned on some salsa music and we all danced in the kitchen. Pretty great. At dinner we discussed the plans for tomorrow including team meeting and outreach.

Tomorrow we will be hitting the streets. I'm really excited about it. We are keeping it low key tomorrow making sure we are preparing our minds, bodies, hearts and spirits for tomorrow night. Spending time in the word and with God in prayer is vital. 

You know how some times people will say things that you haven't put deep thought into but you either 1. know it already deep down, it's underlying OR 2. it just makes sense and why wouldn't it

Maybe I'm confusing you but it makes sense in my head. Well, Laura was talking about these girls on the streets and how they aren't just their mission or cause they are their friends. I mean ... yeah. It totally makes sense. These girls are friends. I am excited to meet the friends of Anna, Laura, Pati, Sarah, Laura G., Karlie, Megan H., Brooke and Megan. It's all about relationships. It's about trust and love. It's about hurting with people you love because Christ does the same. They are His children just as much as we are. He longs for them to become His bride. 

Things I just keep thinking deeper about or even just think about and process through over and over so it sticks. 

¡Mañana va a ser impresionante! 

My First Night In San Jose

Well folks, I made it to Costa Rica. My parents dropped me off at the airport this morning where I flew to Dallas (DFW) to connect to my plane that would take me to San Jose. I was a little nervous when I actually got off the plane and made it through customs because I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be looking for the girls that were going to be picking me up. As I made my way to the exit there were so many people crowded on the outside of the airport pressing their signs with names on them and their faces against the large windows. Thankfully I recognized Laura's face as soon as I came out of customs. I made my way to her and a girl named Pati who then showed me where their van driver was. We got into the van and made our way to the apartments... house? I'm not quite sure what to call it. haha. The first girl I met in the apartment is named Brooke. She is from Chesapeake... funny enough right? Well her family lives there and she goes to JMU. So we had a nice time kinda briefly getting to know one another. She has been here all summer with her roommate Megan. I also got to meet Laura Perry and Paul when they got back from an English church service that they attend sunday nights.

Tomorrow morning I will be having the traditional Costa Rican breakfast with the staff. & Tomorrow night Pati wants to make dinner special because she is honduran and I am honduran. She told me that she and I would be known as "catrachas." Whereas people here are "ticas" and "ticos."

I still don't understand the time difference based on my location. When it was 10pm here, it was 11pm in TX, and 12am in Virginia Beach. Now as it approaches midnight it is about 2am in Virginia.

We will go to the airport to pick up Amy around lunch time. She will be an intern here for a week. So either she will share this room with me or take another room here in the apartment. I can tell already that these girls are wonderful. I'm very excited to spend the next two weeks here. :]

I didn't see much of Costa when we drove home so tomorrow will be exciting. I did however see one girl standing on a corner. Anna said there weren't many girls out at that time because it wasn't late enough.

I did skype with my friend Katie who is in Argentina right now. That was pretty awesome.
I also ate a mango... a costa rican mango... yum.
I'm pretty exhausted.


Till tomorrow friends.

p.s. karlie... the girls got their letters :) im sure you'll hear about it

In 24 Hours

In a little less than 24 hours I will be sitting in the airport waiting for my flight. It has been almost 5 months in the making for this process. My mind is trying to wrap itself around the fact that I will be in San Jose tomorrow evening. It's hard for my brain to grasp that right now. Haha.

Just so everyone knows... I am fully funded for this trip!!!! Whoo! Thank you to everyone who has donated money towards my trip, invested in me, and is praying for me. God has seriously overwhelmed me with His blessings throughout this process.

I've enjoyed the last 2 days with my family in our home... but I am also totally pumped for tomorrow. Just prepare yourselves because there will be updates constantly throughout my day tomorrow. I will probably be blowing up Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Although I have been in communication with LightForce in preparation as well as asking Karlie and Megan anything and everything... I don't know if I know what to expect other than the base of what I do know. I hope that made sense. Haha. It's like I discussed with the girls at one point... You can spend so much time preparing yourself for something like this but even with the preparation there are just some things that come about that you learn from in the moment, almost as if you can't prepare yourself for everything. I would say that's very true. If I could prepare myself 100% then where would God come in? There's that trust and faith factor that has been a very important key to my summer. I constantly have had trust or faith written on my left wrist in hebrew to remind me to take a deep breath and trust.

I'm getting a little nervous and excited. I need a singular word for this because I often find myself in this state. 

Well... I'm going to make the most of being home with the fam for the rest of the day. Until tomorrow my friends...

To Texas I Go

I leave Virginia Beach tomorrow morning around 7:30am to fly out to Austin, TX. I will be spending 2.5 days with my family before flying out to San Jose. I'm very excited because I haven't seen my family since New Years! My little sister texted me today asking if I was coming home tomorrow (she wouldn't want to publicly admit it, but, she misses me). When I'm home I have a lot of things to do such as doctors checkups and such. I will also be resting, I have been instructed to do so by LightForce. I will be taking some time to rest my body, mind, heart and spirit.

Tonight I got to spend a lovely two hours with Karlie. Gosh I love that chicka. She and Megan have really poured into me more than they know and I am so thankful for that.

I haven't started packing yet and my flight leaves at 7:30am tomorrow. I was pretty exhausted from today so I decided to eat and recoup for a little bit so I can gain some energy to pack it all up. Jessica Myers, my dear friend, is with me now, keeping me company and helping me get things done around my apartment before I leave. Seriously, she is the bomb.

Alright, here's to a night of packing and a crazy day tomorrow! Whoo!

Oh and... I get to connect to another plane in Nashville, TN! How cool is that!?

Mi amiga rubia

My Cup Overflows With Your Blessings

One week from today I will be in San Jose, Costa Rica. Wow. The last two weeks have held so many surprises, challenges, and so many blessings. Tonight my Big House Church family prayed over me. It was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever experienced. So many bodies of the church coming together, whether I knew them, or not, to pray and encourage and speak over me. I went from laughing with so much joy and thankfulness to crying because of the overwhelming love being poured out. I could not be more thankful. After praying I wanted to jump up and down and scream like a 12 year old girl... I was that excited and I still am. I am making the joy of the Lord my snuggie. (thank you Brit) I want to wrap and clothe myself in His joy and bring it to His people... His children... with love. Joy. Joy was spoken over me tonight. Did I not just write about that previously?! God is so good. I'm kinda blown away. I won't come back the same. I don't want to. I want to be a feather... blown by God's winds. (thank you Adam)

Thursday I will be flying home to Texas for a couple days with the family before leaving from Austin, TX and flying straight to San Jose. There's so much to do before then! Eeep!

Gettin' There

Reposting this link to my PayPal since I am less than a week and a half out from Costa! :) Almost there fund wise which is so awesome!! Only about $400 away from the goal.

Hope you all are enjoying my posts! Please feel free to comment on any of them. It let's me know someone is out there reading these :) Even if no one is reading this... I'm ok with that. Writing about this process is teaching me a lot!

LINK TO DONATE ON PAYPAL

Also, check out the Ministry page! This is who I will be meeting up with when I get to San Jose.

LightForce Ministries

Two Weeks then it's ¡Hasta Luego!

Today marks two weeks until I will be in Costa Rica. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! Where did the summer go? It's already July 8th! This day last year I was at home in Texas headed to a Texas Rangers Baseball Game. (the only reason I know this is because I was cleaning out a couple bags and found the tickets for the game in the bag)

So, not gonna lie, yesterday was pretty awesome. Here's how it all went down. I had to work from 7am-3pm. Killer. Opened the cafe for our saturday morning customers which usually is a make up of two men's bible study groups as well as a few other random customers. I started setting out a paper next to the tip jar that looks like this:

The tips from the times I am on shift help me to continue towards my goal. 

Saturday was pretty busy which was nice. Several people asked who "Gabrielle" was and I told them I was Gabrielle. I like to work the register more than most people at work so it was easy to answer questions if anyone asked about it. I had one woman who talked with me for about 5 minutes about my trip and what I was doing and with whom. (5 minutes is pretty long when your a barista and it's been a busy day)  There happened to be a break in the flow of customers when she came through so I was actually able to engage in conversation. She asked questions, gave advice and encouraged me. She then had her drink, told me to have a great time, and sliped 5 dollars in the tip jar. I thanked her and she made her way out. I walked to the back room to finish my lunch in the rest of my break when I saw someone on the security camera walk back in the cafe so I walked back out to the counter. It was the woman with whom I was just talking with, but by the time I came back out she was walking out the door. Ashley happened to be hanging out at the cafe and told me that she put some money in the jar. I looked in the jar and there was $40! I looked back at Ashley and began to cry. Tears of joy of course. Wow. God is incredible. I didn't even know this woman and couldn't thank her again. Perhaps I will see her come into the cafe in the future. I was so overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude. 

Funny thing is... 10 minutes later in the middle of making a drink I stopped and began to laugh. Ashley proceeded to ask me why I was laughing and later I told her... "I was laying in bed last night after having a rough evening and my heart hurt a lot so I prayed and asked God to make today a beautiful day filled with joy and beautiful people and surprises." I saw just then in the midst of making a latte that God had answered my prayer. I met several strangers who donated towards my trip, encouraged me, and got to spend an unexpected afternoon with my best friend Ashley. Wow. Yeah. How about that for God and how incredible he is. 

Also, today as I was cleaning... I found $20 more dollars in a bag I hadn't used since December. 

So all around... God is good. He is definitely providing and teaching. I will share more later about what he has taught me this week.

2 weeks to go and I am only $500 shy of my goal! It's all in His hands :) Praise God for getting me this far with a hope for the future.

New Signature

I know this really isn't an update at all but I have to share my new signature with you because I am excited to use it!

Here it is:

I kinda love it! So anywho, its pretty late and I have church in the am. I will have to update yall on the amazing day I had and tell you all about how God answered my prayers the previous night! I was so overwhelmed I cried. Just you wait! It's a good thing. :)

ἀγάπη 

Ρομανς 8:26-27

Half Way There

I'm very excited to say that I am almost half way there funding my trip to San Jose! God is faithful :] With 17 days, 21 hours, 25 minutes and 50 seconds left till the day I could not be more excited!!! I'm getting the inside scoop from Karlie and Megan on stuff to know before I go. I'm so thankful for them. Where would I be without them?! Not getting ready to go to Costa, that's for sure.

So in the time I have been preparing for this trip I am happy to say that I have been learning some awesome things. I am learning more about faith, and trust. They go hand in hand but they have very specific individual meaning. I'm also learning a lot about myself through this process. God is revealing some of my weak areas and other strong areas. I often let underlying discouragement get the best of me. I am being able to recognize the lies I tell myself and the devil leads me to believe and I am able to call them out in front of myself and the Lord. There also have been several instances in which I was so heavy hearted that I prayed for something unexpected to lift my spirit and God has come through every time. It often brings me to tears in thankfulness and that's when I begin to laugh.

An Example:

Two nights ago I awoke from a bad dream. I won't call it a nightmare because it wasn't one. Just a very bad dream that I couldn't wake myself from. When I did awake I felt sick to my stomach because of what I had just dreamt. I then prayed that my dream would have no hold over me and my whole day but that my heart would be light and there would be joy throughout my day. As soon as I finished praying I checked my phone (as I do every morning), and there was a message from my Pay Pal saying that there had been a $200 donation to my trip. I was blown away, and my eyes started to tear up. I then checked my Facebook messages and found a message from a church momma asking about what I was doing, encouraging me and asking how my finances were coming along. I was so touched by those two things that morning that I broke down in tears, it was a little intense, kinda glad I was alone in my room for that one. I was so overwhelmed with God and his blessings that morning.

I hope it's ok to post this part of the message the mom sent me... but I have to share:

Other things:

I had the opportunity to share about my trip with some Big House Church family and that was truly another blessing because there was so much affirmation and encouragement as well as commitments to pray for me and LightForce.

I am seeing the preparation for this trip from years back, especially when it comes to what I have learned about compassion and the growth I have seen in my joy from a spiritual perspective. Here's where I get a little honest with everyone because it is this that is a part of me that makes me who I am today and continues to mold me for the future. A few years back I struggled with depression, it was pretty awful. I have written about it in a post on my other blog here: The Life You've Always Wanted: Part 1. In short, I was stretched farther than I have ever been stretched before. God brought me up from the belly of the grave. It is something I am so glad I went through, because I wouldn't be here, right now, if I hadn't experienced it all. In the time of my depression I struggled with joy. I mean, I guess that would be something you could guess. I kept letting others steal my joy and struggled to find it. That's when I began to consistently pray for the Joy of the Lord to come into my life and overwhelm me with it's presence. He came through. I finally found and kept my joy and added on to it. I was thankful every time someone told me I was "joyful" and uplifting to them. Praise God. Yeah He's pretty awesome. 

Well, I'm definitely going to need this joy to be with me when in Costa. This was something that Karlie and Megan even mentioned in conversation with me. I am seeing the importance of joy in the midst of these. I am so glad that what God has taught me will only be added to from here. So, I am seeing the past as preparation for the future. Pretty great eh?

Some things I read recently from a book called "The Life You've Always Wanted" by John Ortberg. Just things I have been thinking about lately:

If we are going to know joy, it must be in this day –– today.

True joy, as it turns out, comes only to those who have devoted their lives to something greater than personal happiness. 

Often it is the people closest to suffering who have the most powerful joy.

You shall go out in joy and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 

That's all for now,

Godspeed